China sentences journalist detained at meal with Japanese diplomat to 7 years for espionage | EUROtoday

A courtroom in Beijing on Friday sentenced a outstanding Chinese journalist to seven in years in jail for espionage, his household stated.

Dong Yuyu, a commentator and editor, was taken away by police whereas assembly a Japanese diplomat at a restaurant in February 2022. He has been in police custody since then.

The Beijing Number 2 Intermediate People’s Court learn the decision however didn’t share a duplicate with Dong’s attorneys or household. No announcement was out there on the courtroom’s web site or its Weibo account.

The verdict named then-Japanese ambassador Hideo Tarumi and Shanghai-based chief diplomat Masaru Okada as brokers belonging to an espionage group, in accordance the household’s assertion.

Dong had served because the deputy head of the editorial division at Guangming Daily, one of many 5 main state-owned papers in China. The paper was as soon as thought-about extra liberal than different state-backed papers. Dong additionally contributed to the Chinese version of the New York Times.

In his revealed writings, together with essays in addition to opinion articles, Dong had voiced his help for constitutional democracy and political reform, which later had been thought-about to be in opposition to the stance of the Communist Party.

He had contacts with overseas diplomats, students and different journalists as a part of his decades-long profession and counted Tarumi, the ambassador, as a pal.

Still, his household stated he knew he was all the time watched by state safety, and due to this fact sought to be as open as potential whereas assembly his Japanese or American contacts.

“With Yuyu’s conviction, every Chinese citizen, when dealing with the Japanese embassy — or perhaps any other foreign embassy and diplomat — will be expected to know that the Chinese government may consider those embassies to be ‘espionage organizations,’” stated the household in a press release. “Every sensible Chinese citizen should be appalled by this reasoning.”

The U.S. Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, condemned Dong’s conviction. “Punishing Dong for exercising his freedom of speech and the press, guaranteed by the PRC’s constitution for all its citizens, is unjust.”